Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

November 2011: Decision of Secretaries of State following Public Local Inquiry

Following objections to the draft Orders for the A1 Elkesley Junctions Improvement published in October 2009, and our announcement in March 2011 that we would make funding available to complete the scheme by 2014, a public local inquiry was held in July 2011 at Elkesley Memorial Hall.  On 28 November 2011 the Secretary of State for Transport and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, acting jointly, announced their decision that Orders for the scheme should be made with amendments.  This decision closely follows the recommendations of the independent planning inspector, Mr. John Watson BSc MICE FCIHT MCMI.  A copy of their decision letter is available on the Publications page.

This decision means we can now proceed formally to make (confirm) the Orders, including the amendments required by the Secretaries of State.  Once made, the Orders will give the Secretaries of State, acting through the Highways Agency, the powers to build the scheme, including acquiring land compulsorily.

Although the required amendments are important, they are not significant in the context of the scheme as a whole and, with one exception, are legal or administrative in nature and do not affect the proposed construction works.  The making of such amendments is a routine matter, and has no bearing on when the scheme might be built. 

The one amendment affecting the proposed works relates to the access to a dwelling, Tea Table Cottage, northwest of Elkesley.  Regarding that dwelling's current private A1 access as unsuitable for retention, in the draft Orders we had proposed a new access independent of the A1 by way of a track from Cross Lane.  However, at the inquiry we had also identified the possibility of an alternative arrangement for a new, much improved, private A1 access a short way southeast of the dwelling.  Ministers have decided, in line with the planning inspector's recommendations, that the alternative arrangement should be adopted instead of that included in the draft Orders.  That will preserve direct A1 access for the cottage, and slightly reduce the amount of land we need to buy south of the A1.  A further alternative access arrangement, identified by an objector, was not taken up by the ministers.

Details of the inquiry are available on the project inquiry website provided by Persona Associates at http://www.persona.uk.com/A1elkesley/index.htm.

Background to the Elkesley Junctions Improvement

The A1 trunk road links the southeast and the east coast ports with the north of England.  Around 43,000 vehicles use it through the East Midlands daily, almost a third of them heavy goods vehicles. Many of the road's junctions, especially those with main roads, are of the two-level type, where local and through traffic are separated, but junctions with many local roads are on a single level with gaps in the central reservation through which traffic turns.  Such junctions have a relatively poor safety record and create a perception of hazard which inhibits their use, causing inconvenience and severance.

At Elkesley there are three single-level junctions, two with central reservation gaps. They provide Elkesley's only road links. A 2001 route study recommended that a scheme of access improvements be developed for Elkesley.  A reduced A1 speed limit was introduced in 1997 as an interim safety measure, and in October 2002 the Elkesley junctions were identified as one of 92 trunk road sites in England at which improvements should be considered a priority. 

In 2005 we consulted on two options, both involving closing the all central reservation gaps and direct agricultural accesses onto the A1 around Elkesley. Option A proposed a new two-level junction and link to Jockey Lane northwest of the village, improvements to the two-level junction at Twyford Bridge (A1/B6387) east of the village and closure of all the current junctions. Option B proposed instead a new road next to the A1 linking the village to an improved Twyford Bridge junction.  Under this second option some of the current junctions would remain, but their layouts would be improved and all central reservation gaps closed.

Most people welcomed the prospect of improvements.  Option A was preferred but considered too near the village, so we looked at how it could be improved.  Early in 2008 we exhibited two variants on Option A, each with the two-level junction moved westwards and the Twyford Bridge work omitted.  The two differed only in the way the northbound slip roads were connected to the local road network.

On 22 July 2008 the Secretary of State for Transport announced the preferred route for the Elkesley Junctions Improvement.  Based on Option A, it provided for a two-level junction northwest of the village.  The northbound slip roads were to be linked to a diverted Coalpit Lane, avoiding the need for a roundabout south of the A1 and reducing intrusion on the village.  The diversion of Coalpit Lane, to be part-funded by Nottinghamshire County Council, would allow the residential section of Coalpit Lane to be converted into two culs-de-sac and a cycletrack.

Copies of the 2008 Preferred Route Announcement leaflet and 2006 Public Consultation Report are available on the Publications page.

Twyford Bridge Junction and Twyford Lane

The proposals included in the draft Orders do not include any improvements to the A1/B6387 Twyford Bridge junction, for which we will be bringing forward separate proposals (see http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/13268.aspx). The Orders for the Elkesley scheme will provide for the southerly Elkesley junction at Twyford Lane to remain open, but only for access from the northbound A1 into the village.  In allowing Twyford Lane to remain open, we will invite the county council to consider introducing a weight limit along Twyford Lane and High Street to ban heavy goods vehicles from using those roads except for loading.  As part of the development of proposals for Twyford Bridge junction, we are looking again at whether the Twyford Lane junction should remain open in the longer term as a route into the village.

Once the work at Elkesley is complete, we intend to restore the national speed limit on the A1 from a point northwest of the restaurant near Twyford Lane.  A 1-mile (1.6km) section of the A1 southeast of the restaurant, and a further section of the southbound carriageway through Elkesley, will remain subject to a 50mph speed limit until we make improvements at the Twyford Bridge junction.